responsibility to God himself, is the inalienable privilege of every believer.” The church, which has (1909) 985 ministers and some 238,000 communicant members, is divided into seventeen districts, with officers responsible to the General Synod, which meets every four years. There are boards for home and foreign missions, the latter operating chiefly in the Central Provinces of India. The literature of the church is mainly in German, though English is rapidly gaining ground.
GERMANIC LAWS, EARLY. Of those Germanic laws of the early middle ages which are known as leges barbarorum, we here deal with the principal examples other than Frankish, viz. (1) Leges Wisigothorum, (2) Lex Burgundionum, (3) Pactus Alamannorum and Lex Alamannorum, (4) Lex Bajuvariorum, (5) Lex Saxonum, (6) Lex Frisionum, (7) Lex Angliorum et Werinorum, hoc est, Thuringorum, and (8) Leges Langobardorum. All these laws may in general be described as codes of procedure and tariffs of compositions. They present somewhat similar features with the Salic law, but often differ from it in the date of compilation, the amount of fines, the number and nature of the crimes, the number, rank, duties and titles of the officers, &c. For the Salic law and other Frankish laws, see Salic Law, and for the edict of Theodoric I., which was applicable to the Ostrogoths and Romans, see Roman Law.
For the whole body of the Germanic laws see P. Canciani, Barbarorum leges antiquae (Venice, 1781–1789); F. Walter, Corpus juris germanici antiqui (Berlin, 1824); Monumenta Germaniae historica, Leges. For further information on the codes in general, see H. M. Zöpfl, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte (4th ed., Heidelberg, 1871–1876); J. E. O. Stobbe, Geschichte der deutschen Rechtsquellen (Brunswick, 1860–1864); Paul Viollet, Histoire du droit civil français (2nd ed., Paris, 1893); H. Brunner, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1906).
1. Leges Wisigothorum.—Karl Zeumer’s edition of these laws in the 4to series of the Mon. Germ. Hist. throws new light on all questions relating to their date and composition. It is now certain that the earliest written code of the Visigoths dates back to King Euric (466–485). Besides his own constitutions, Euric included in this collection constitutions of his predecessors, Theodoric I. (419–451), Thorismund (451–453), and Theodoric II. (453–466), and he arranged the whole in a logical order. Of this code fragments of chapters cclxxvi. to cccxxxvi.[1] have been discovered in a palimpsest MS. in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris (Latin coll., No. 12161), a fact which proves that the code ran over a large area. Euric’s code was used for all cases between Goths, and between them and Romans; in cases between Romans, Roman law was used. At the instance of Euric’s son, Alaric II., an examination was made of the Roman laws in use among Romans in his dominions, and the resulting compilation was approved in 506 at an assembly at Aire, in Gascony, and is known as the Breviary of Alaric, and sometimes as the Liber Aniani, from the fact that the authentic copies bear the signature of the referendarius Anian.
Euric’s code remained in force among the Visigoths of Spain until the reign of Leovigild (568–586), who made a new one, improving upon that of his predecessor. This work is lost, and we have no direct knowledge of any fragment of it. In the 3rd codification, however, many provisions have been taken from the 2nd, and these are designated by the word “antiqua”; by means of these “antiqua” we are enabled in a certain measure to reconstruct the work of Leovigild.
After the reign of Leovigild the legislation of the Visigoths underwent a transformation. The new laws made by the kings were declared to be applicable to all the subjects in the kingdom, of whatever race—in other words, they became territorial; and this principle of territoriality was gradually extended to the ancient code. Moreover, the conversion of Reccared I. (586–601) to orthodoxy effaced the religious differences among his subjects, and all subjects, qua Christians, had to submit to the canons of the councils, which were made obligatory by the kings. After this change had been accepted, Recceswinth (649–672) made a new code, which was applicable to Visigoths and Romans alike. This code, known as the Liber judiciorum, is divided into 12 books, which are subdivided into tituli and chapters (aerae). It comprises 324 constitutions taken from Leovigild’s collection, a few of the laws of Reccared and Sisebut, 99 laws of Chindaswinth (642–653), and 87 of Recceswinth. A recension of this code of Recceswinth was made in 681 by King Erwig (680–687), and is known as the Lex Wisigothorum renovata; and, finally, some additamenta were made by Egica (687–702). In Zeumer’s edition of the Leges Wisigothorum the versions of Recceswinth and Erwig, where they differ from each other, are shown in parallel columns, and the laws later than Erwig are denoted by the sign “nov.”
For further information see the preface to Zeumer’s edition; H. Brunner, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1906); Ureña y Smenyaud, La Legislacion Gotico-hispana (Madrid, 1905).
2. Lex Burgundionum.—This code was compiled by King Gundobald (474–516), very probably after his defeat by Clovis in 500. Some additamenta were subsequently introduced either by Gundobald himself or by his son Sigismund. This law bears the title of Liber Constitutionum, which shows that it emanated from the king; it is also known as the Lex Gundobada or Lex Gombata. It was used for cases between Burgundians, but was also applicable to cases between Burgundians and Romans. For cases between Romans, however, Gundobald compiled the Lex Romana Burgundionum, called sometimes, through a misreading of the MSS., the Liber Papiani or simply Papianus. The barbarian law of the Burgundians shows strong traces of Roman influence. It recognizes the will and attaches great importance to written deeds, but on the other hand sanctions the judicial duel and the cojuratores (sworn witnesses). The vehement protest made in the 9th century by Agobard, bishop of Lyons, against the Lex Gundobada shows that it was still in use at that period. So late as the 10th and even the 11th centuries we find the law of the Burgundians invoked as personal law in Cluny charters, but doubtless these passages refer to accretions of local customs rather than to actual paragraphs of the ancient code.
The text of the Lex Burgundionum has been published by F. Bluhme in the Mon. Germ. hist., Leges, iii. 525; by Karl Binding in the Fontes rerum Bernensium (vol. i., 1880); by J. E. Valentin Smith (Paris, 1889 seq.); and by von Salis (1892) in the 4to series of the Mon. Germ. hist. Cf. R. Dareste, “La Loi Gombette,” in the Journal des savants (July 1891).
3. Pactus Alamannorum and Lex Alamannorum.—Of the laws of the Alamanni, who dwelt between the Rhine and the Lech, and spread over Alsace and what is now Switzerland to the south of Lake Constance, we possess two different texts. The earlier text, of which five short fragments have come down to us, is known as the Pactus Alamannorum, and from the persistent recurrence of the expression “et sic convenit” was most probably drawn up by an official commission. The reference to affranchisement in ecclesia shows that it was composed at a period subsequent to the conversion of the Alamanni to Christianity. There is no doubt that the text dates back to the reign of Dagobert I., i.e. to the first half of the 7th century. The later text, known as the Lex Alamannorum, dates from a period when Alamannia was independent under national dukes, but recognized the theoretical suzerainty of the Frankish kings. There seems no reason to doubt the St Gall MS., which states that the law had its origin in an agreement between the great Alamannic lords and Duke Landfrid, who ruled the duchy from 709 to 730.
The two texts have been published by J. Merkel in the Mon. Germ. hist., Leges, iii., and by Karl Lehmann in the 4to series of the same collection.
4. Lex Bajuvariorum.—We possess an important law of the Bavarians, whose duchy was situated in the region east of the Lech, and was an outpost of Germany against the Huns, known later as Avars. Parts of this law have been taken directly from the Visigothic law of Euric and from the law of the Alamanni. The Bavarian law, therefore, is later than that of the Alamanni. It dates unquestionably from a period when the Frankish authority was very strong in Bavaria, when the dukes were vassals of the Frankish kings. Immediately after the revolt of Bavaria in 743 the Bavarian duke Odilo was forced to submit to Pippin and Carloman, the sons of Charles Martel, and to
- ↑ The lacunae in these fragments have been filled in by the aid of the law of the Bavarians, where the chief provisions are reproduced.
